Exactly. But what else can they do but tear apart history to defend this theology?
They inherited a ramshackle foundation by that execrably scrupulous heretic Luther. Sin boldly and all that.
Forgive me Father; for I have sinned.
That's NOTHING!! You should hear about me and the altar boys!!
OUR foundation is merely riddled with termite holes.
Pope Stephen VI (896897), who had his predecessor Pope Formosus exhumed, tried, de-fingered, briefly reburied, and thrown in the Tiber.[1]
Pope John XII (955964), who gave land to a mistress, murdered several people, and was killed by a man who caught him in bed with his wife.
Pope Benedict IX (10321044, 1045, 10471048), who "sold" the Papacy
Pope Boniface VIII (12941303), who is lampooned in Dante's Divine Comedy
Pope Urban VI (13781389), who complained that he did not hear enough screaming when Cardinals who had conspired against him were tortured.[2]
Pope Alexander VI (14921503), a Borgia, who was guilty of nepotism and whose unattended corpse swelled until it could barely fit in a coffin.[3]
Pope Leo X (15131521), a spendthrift member of the Medici family who once spent 1/7 of his predecessors' reserves on a single ceremony[4]
Pope Clement VII (15231534), also a Medici, whose power-politicking with France, Spain, and Germany got Rome sacked.